Mumsnet: An echo chamber for the leftist chatterati?

[Cam2020]

Just that really-what do people think?

There are a lot of Tory = murderer posts but I think overall we are pretty representative.

In saying that I have been here 18 years and used to be very left leaning and that was much more comfortable on here than where I find myself now. I’ve definitely shifted more right, votes Tory for the first time etc. and this isn’t a mumsnet thing in particular, it seems to happen everywhere, but the SHIT you get for being right leaning is unreal! It’s much nastier than what I used to get when I was left leaning 🤷‍♀️

This person thinks 'journalists' have become incredibly lazy

Completely agree with Crispyturtle , there has been much made of dividing the country into left and right wing 'sides' and yet most people are in the middle , some lean left and some lean right, depending on the subject under discussion.

PowerslidePanda Fri 29-May-20 08:53:47
Yes. It was fascinating to see how astonished some Mumsnetters were by the landslide Tory victory at the last election - the echo chamber effect had rendered some of them oblivious to the views of the country as a whole.
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I don't think it was that, I believe so many people were complacent about the result that they didn't bother to vote. The same happened with the Remain or Leave referendum, the result of which was a shock to all.

I feel bad about not voting. I do have problems with going out and have since registered for a postal vote but my son still doesn't know I didn't make my way to the polling station and I'm not going to tell him (I do my penance in private and anyway I've been disadvantaged by the results so learned my lesson). I wouldn't call myself 'leftist' in all respects, I care about social issues and am generally left of centre but not especially political.

It was fascinating to see how astonished some Mumsnetters were by the landslide Tory victory at the last election

Are you mistaking the high drama volume and tone of a handful of posters who were astonished by the election because I was struck by the sheer volume of posters who wrote, 'I've always voted Labour but I can't because...', and the deep regret that the party who had till now represented them represented something else entirely.

LOL, I post on leftwing sites and this is not a leftwing site!

People talking about MN being unrepresentatively left wing generally ignore that no site where people tend to be clustered around a couple of age brackets will be representative. In the UK, the older someone is, the more likely they are to vote right wing. So no website where there isn't a representative balance of ages, which is most of them, will match the general population. The same would be true of TSR and pensioner sites. MNs main demographic is what, late 20s to mid 40s, and that group is more likely to be left leaning than the population as a whole because that's simply the way politics works in this country.

Ah yes the old 'More educated people lean to the left' (ie Tory voters are thickos). I just had a quick look at the YouGov page linked to and according to that 36% of degree educated vote Conservative compared to 28% voting labour. Labour votes remain fairly static across the educational spectrum but people become more centrist as their level of education rises. I would imagine because their critical thinking improves, issues become more nuanced.

It's certainly not a left wing clever/right wing stupid binary.

It's a line often trotted out on here though (as evidenced by this thread), which can make it feel a bit echo-chambery.

If you spend your time trawling through the cesspit that is Daily Mail Comments then we’re positively Trotskyist.

The more educated a person is the more likely they are to vote Lib Dem or Labour.

Unless that education involves biology. LibDem, Labour & the Greens stated quite explicitly that they didn’t want votes from anyone who knows what a woman is.

Also I thought FWR, like WPUK, Fair Play for Women, etc, was funded by shady right-wing fundamentalist Christian billionaires?

It’s not an insult it’s a fact. Just as every 10 years of age make you more likely to vote Conservative.

Nope. I’m left of centre though...

@ItsGoingTibiaK it was not a sweeping statement, it was a question. Note the question mark?

yes I am still waiting for my cheque from those billionaires... could do with the cash tbh to move that along a bit

Anyway Freekitties said what I would have said to this. People also tend to find that trying to become parents or being parents makes them focus on different things and become very tangibly vulnerable to government policy or cultural practices so it’s not surprising that a lot of people want to talk about that with others in the same boat.

Yes, I am pretty aware this is the case.

It's not a fact Glow, that YouGov page shows you quite clearly. More degree educated people vote Conservative than Labour. As educational attainment rises, fewer vote Tory and tend to centrist parties, but Labour's vote share actually drops slightly between A-level and Degree educated people.

Absolutely.

I find MN to be left-leaning but for the most part feel it does not delve too deeply into the true left. There was a core of people on here who got a nasty shock during the last election though.

I'm on the right but I don't pursue party politics on MN. People in daily life tend to be truly suprised I use MN because of this but I use the site for other reasons. I find MN useful, supportive, a fantastic, woman-centered resource and one of the few places willing to stand up for the rights and spaces of women... when we're not being attacked and censored for discussing such things.

Well said OP, left wing echo chamber is spot on.

[quote Graciebobcat]If only, it's full of right wing astroturfers at times.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing[/quote]
Too true

It's certainly a Remain echo chamber.

Anyone admitting to having voted Leave gets their head kicked in immediately.

Most certainly. Mostly it's just a little left of center unless it's teaching or Brexit. Then the deafening sound of lefties shouting is all you will hear!

I class myself as right wing glitterati

I think it's just some posters are so entrenched in their views they see any disagreement as indicative of sinister motives. A lot of paranoid and dramatic posters here too, but that's not new. I think it just comes to the fore in times of national 'crisis'.

There are plenty of conservatives here but, as in real life, they largely keep their own counsel to avoid screeching accusations and smug posturing and express themselves though the ballot box.